Australia's largest grasshopper.
Today while we were in town doing a bit if shopping for supplies, we spotted Australia's largest grasshopper species clinging to the bow of the tree we had parked next to. It was big! Bigger than any grasshopper we'd seen here before, probably about 7cm long.
At first we thought it was a locust, but when I looked it up, they don't grow as big as this one was, and their markings were a bit different too.
It wouldn't let me get too close to it, but I did manage to get a pretty good picture of it, whuch helped me when figuring out what species it was.
This one looks like it has just maulted, as it was very green instead of being a grayish brown colour, but you can see some darkenning on its legs and wing edges. It did still have its distinct redish tibia spines with black tips, which helped to identify it.
They are commonly found in a broad band across the northern part of Australia, so where we are here in Dongara must be right at the most southern part of their distribution.
It's amazing what you can find when you look around you wherever you are, and not just go on about your day with tunnel-vision.
Big grasshopper! Not a fan of those, wreck entire crops in matters of minutes 🤔
Yeah, when they swarm they can cause huge devastation to the farmlands. I don't think this one is as bad as the plague locusts which wreak havoc every couple of years.
Oh wow, your in Dongara, I have spent a few drunk evenings in your local pub when I was a groupie in my youth. lol, I dated a drummer for a few years, they played there a couple of times.
Haha! Nice! We really enjoy coming to Dongara. It's a nice and quiet place most of the time.
Wow nice